IMPROVEMENTS Plan lists goals for Warren

The number of renter-occupied units increased in the west and southwest areas.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- More emphasis on public improvements rather than on community services is one change in a draft version of the city's 2005 through 2009 housing and community development plan.
The draft is open for public comment until Nov. 15 after which it will be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The plan identifies local housing and community development needs and provides a strategy to address them through federal funding.
The plan lists economic development, public improvements, housing and home services, and community services as its community development block grant-funded goals.
Heather McMahon, urban design and grants coordinator for the city's community development department, said economic development always has been the first goal of previous plans. A change is more of an emphasis on public improvements with less on community services.
Improvements
Public improvements include street, sanitary sewer and sidewalk repair and building demolition in areas that meet the federal low- to moderate-income requirements, park improvements, downtown development and historic preservation.
In community services, the emphasis will be on youth intervention and elderly services and on transportation, McMahon said.
The report says 41.5 percent of the city's residential units are renter-occupied with an increase from 1990 to 2000 in the number of renter-occupied units occurring on the city's west and southwest sides.
The plan's housing and homeless services goals list homeless support, owner-occupied housing rehabilitation, home ownership promotion and rental rehabilitation.
The city's population is expected to decrease to 42,525 by 2010. That would amount to a more than 9 percent drop since 2000.
U.S. Census and city community development department data says 18 percent of city residents were living in households below the federal poverty line in 2000 while 10.4 percent of Trumbull County residents fell into that same category.
denise_dick@vindy.com